Richard Sutcliffe: Cricket is sadly now the poor relation of sport Down Under

“Cricket simply can’t pay its way here any more,” he said as I stared round the cavernous bowl that has been hosting the fourth Ashes Test in recent days.

“Football rules this place nowadays. There will be 48 AFL games played here in 2014, plus finals. And it is the money from those that keeps this place going.

“The Boxing Day Test is, basically, the only real income that cricket brings in. For Sheffield Shield cricket (the equivalent of our County Championship), you can count the crowd in the hundreds. AFL is king here so they can call the tune.”

In a nutshell, the guide had summed up the current state of play with Australia and their cricket grounds. MCG and its sister in Sydney may have the word ‘Cricket’ in their title but, increasingly, it is what we know as Aussie Rules that is dominating sporting arenas Down Under.

I saw this at first hand earlier this month when I achieved a long-held ambition of watching an Ashes Test in Australia. It was the second Test in Adelaide at the rebuilt Oval and, even allowing for England’s spineless performance, a jolly nice time was had by all.

Seeing first-hand the Saturday afternoon session in which Mitchell Johnson, roared on by the partisan locals, blew away England’s first innings with a spell of hostile bowling reminiscent of Lillee and Thompson’s heyday was enthralling.

The fact the Barmy Army, thankfully sitting at the opposite end of the Oval from me for all five days of the Test, had tried to once again belittle Australia’s new cricket hero with the charming little ditty that ends with the words ‘that Mitchell Johnson, his bowling is s****’ just seconds before he shattered Alastair Cook’s stumps only added to the theatre of the occasion.

Regular readers of the Yorkshire Post will know I had visited Adelaide in January, when I was given a guided tour of the Oval. At that stage, the River End was merely a steel skeleton while the Eastern side of the ground was just a patch of earth awaiting the builders.

Eleven months on and the Oval had been transformed with the River End now a spectacular three-tier stand, capable of holding 14,000 spectators.

The Eastern Stand was all but complete, too, with the bottom of the three tiers being used for the first time as around 150,000 attended the five days of a Test that Australia won by 218 runs.

Looking around the vast arena from the upper tier of the new River End on the morning of the first day, I could not fail to be impressed by the vision laid out in front of me.

There was the historic – and, crucially, listed – scoreboard, pictured, that has kept cricket fans abreast of games at the Oval for more than a century. There, too, were the Moreton Bay Fig trees that line the Northern Mound, while the pitch itself also looked a picture as the two teams lined up for the playing of the national anthems.

Once play started, however, a problem soon became apparent. From such an elevated position, it was very hard to follow the ball – both as it left the bowler’s hand and, increasingly as the day wore on, then subsequently headed to the boundary courtesy of an Australian bat.

I was only on the fifth row of the third tier, too, so can only imagine the difficulty those sitting even further back must have been having when trying to keep track of play.

Thankfully, on subsequent days, my tickets were for the bottom tier of the new stand and this problem had disappeared. It meant I was able to ‘enjoy’, in all its gory detail, the England batting collapse on the third afternoon that saw six wickets fall for just 16 runs in 26 deliveries and the revitalised Johnson twice being left on a hat-trick.

That said, though, I could not help but feel the sheer size of the new developments at the Adelaide Oval had been built with not watching cricket in mind but, instead, a sport such as AFL, which will return to the stadium after a long absence in the New Year when the city’s two premier teams move in.

This trend in Australia was confirmed a few days later, not only when enjoying a tour of the MCG but also when speaking to a couple of local cricket fans while watching the first day of the third Test on television.

I was in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, Er Indoors wanted to do some last minute shopping before we flew home the following day so I took the chance to watch a couple of hours of cricket in what looked like a welcoming hostelry.

My glass of Carlton Draught was still full when England struck an early blow as Jimmy Anderson ran out Chris Rogers. Having sat through five days of Aussie gloating in Adelaide, I cheered. Loudly. And this caught the attention of two locals sitting at the next table.

We soon fell into conversation and it was then that I learned Perth’s WACA is staging one of its last Test matches. A new 60,000-capacity stadium is being built in Western Australia’s premier city that, as with Melbourne, Brisbane and now Adelaide, will host both cricket and Aussie Rules. With cricket very much the junior partner.

Once completed, the WACA, which has already been left off next year’s Test rota when India head to Australia, will be relegated to hosting state games and club cricket.

Having watched a Big Bash game in Perth amid a crackling atmosphere as recently as January, I can only view this as a crying shame.

With its mish-mash of stands and idiosyncratic design, the WACA may not win any design awards. It may also lack sufficient cover to protect spectators when the temperatures top 40 degrees, as was the case during the recent Test.

But, like the Gabba in Brisbane before the arrival of the builders’ wrecking ball, it is a great place to watch cricket and will be sorely missed by those who do not worship at the high altar of Aussie Rules football.

and another thing...

WITH the footballing year over, it is a time to take stock and assess what 2013 has meant to the Broad Acres.

The most welcome news for Yorkshire was the return of Premier League football after a three-year absence thanks to Hull City.

A haul of 23 points at the midway stage of 2013-14 also represents a hugely encouraging return and one that suggests the Tigers’ stay among the elite will, at the very least, stretch into a second season.

Yorkshire’s other promoted sides, Rotherham United and Bradford City, can also look back with pride.

For the Bantams, play-off success came along with the incredible achievement of reaching the League Cup final from the basement division, a feat that is unlikely to be repeated any time soon.

The Millers, too, deserve huge credit for how the momentum of last season’s run-in has been maintained this time around to put Steve Evans’ men in the hunt for a second successive promotion.

As for elsewhere, 2013 brought plenty of happy times – whether it be the likes of Barnsley, Huddersfield or York staying up or Leeds springing an FA Cup upset by knocking out Gareth Bale and Tottenham Hotspur.

Let’s hope for more of the same next year.